Saugus Speedway ~ Striking a Blow For Short Track Racers ~ Part I

By ~ Carol Bell

Strikes among stock car drivers are rare.  Those drivers and/or owners who do strike and end up even remotely successful are even rarer.

A number of years ago, NASCAR ran an ad campaign that was duplicated in many ways by Nextel when they took over naming rights to the series. It was a warm and fuzzy reflection of the underlying strength of the sport. In one ad, it praised the NASCAR series as one of pure competition, fan loyalty, and unlike other major sports, no competitors had ever gone on strike. By God, if they wanted more money, they raced for it. Well, not quite.

Teams began rolling into the shiny new racetrack having heard only sparse rumors as it was being built. Similar to Daytona, but state of the art.  True, there was that "tire" thing, but let’s see what we've got.

What they got was a monster that was longer, wider, and generated speeds that drivers had yet to hit and, of course, there was that "tire" thing.